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Messages - Hot_Dog
16
« on: December 21, 2021, 03:55:38 am »
I've given the game a third test run, and I think I'm happy with the results:
* I added three new enemies and some enemy groups to levels 8,9,10 and 11
* Megan has a decent weapon she can fire if need-be
* Weapons are much cheaper, but to offset this, it takes longer to level up. This also solves a gripe I had of 2-hit enemies that could have been stronger.
* In spite of what the manual says, your team can no longer "gain up" on an enemy when you face groups of enemies. This throws in a little more strategy and careful planning.
* Some enemies can now do two combined attacks.
* Better random-number routine
* Bombs can now only stun 50% of the time, but they have more attack power to compensate.
* The term "ray shield" is now "ray screen" to avoid confusion with normal shields.
* More bug fixes
* You can see how much strength your shields have, helping you to remember when you need to equip a new shield.
At some point I need to say "It's balanced enough. It needs to get released." But I found a rather critical bug. I'm hoping this bug is just the result of wabbitemu going out of its mind after how many times I reloaded the app without saving leaving the game first. In any case, I guess I need to test this game one more time, because I can't release it on TiCalc.org -- or on Cemetech for that matter -- if that bug isn't fixed.
EDIT: DJ Omnimaga, don't misunderstand me! Take your time! The above is directed at myself -- at some point I need to say "Enough coding. Enough new graphics. The game's fine now."
17
« on: December 13, 2021, 03:05:55 pm »
Sorry, I have been busy with a secret personal project in the last two weeks so I didn't get to try the new version yet. I downloaded it, though, so I can try to beat it during breaks. 
Oh, I didn't know that!  Well, now that I know that, no hurry and no worries! Good luck with your secret project! Since you're doing me a favor -- and again, take your time -- here you are: I've added that extra "courtesy" teleporter to Level 1. EDIT: Also, I'm going to be doing one last balance run-through from December to January, because there are a couple of things that are still bugging me. Changes might be made to the game while you're testing this, but those changes won't affect your saved games.
18
« on: December 12, 2021, 11:46:17 am »
Well, I thought the game was pretty much complete, but something was bothering me. After level 6 there are no more "face 3 enemies at once," which is part of the challenge of the game and how you can use what you've learned. I couldn't think about how to implement this because of several factors (including Megan's role as a helper), but now I can fix this.
I haven't received a single message about bugs or balance changes, so if all goes well, I'm going to officially release this the end of January 2022. Here's a list of what I plan to change between now and then for those who are curious:
MAJOR CHANGES:
* Give Megan a stronger attack, but using it outside of emergencies or groups of enemies is disadvantageous
* Add groups of three enemies to levels 9, 10 and 11
MINOR CHANGES:
* Don't force Megan to always be the first to attack. This can be the player's choice. By forcing Megan to attack first, I found some frustration trying to take down shields with proton weapons.
* Make the enemies in levels 9, 10 and 11 a little weaker. I'm okay with "farming" for money, but I felt it was getting ridiculous by level 9.
* Add an additional teleporter to level 1, further removing the frustration of not being allowed to save wherever you want
* Add another "automatic save point" to level 10
* Make it so that an enemy will launch a second attack after temporarily disabling a player or after being allowed to "dodge" again. This means making a few enemies weaker to compensate.
* Take new screenshots (of course!!)
19
« on: November 28, 2021, 02:07:14 pm »
Here's a new version of the file! Here's what's changed:
1) You don't need to unlock your RAM to play this, as I've moved the location of the executable RAM Code.
2) Hopefully the signature's correct.
3) The final cutscene is done! You can ignore what the manual says, you do not need a special appvar to view the ending.
4) I've thought over DJ Omnimaga's suggestions and have made it so that the game will save more often. You still can't save anywhere you want, but this should be less of a headache.
5) Some more bug fixes
For all intents and purposes, the game is done except for bug fixes and balance changes.
20
« on: November 27, 2021, 01:57:16 pm »
@DJ Omnimaga Thank you sooo much for testing the game and sharing your thoughts! I think I've come up with a good solution that will take into consideration what you said without having to do a lot of reprogramming and / or breaking any saved games you may have created. What I'll do within the next 4 days is make it so that whenever you collect a bomb, mineral, etc. your game data will save but not your location. At least in that case, if you have to start from the beginning of the level, you don't have to go back and recollect everything. For level 1 in particular, I can make it so that your game will re-save once you walk past the corridor that doesn't let you pass because you don't have enough bombs. Then, if you die, you don't have to start at the very, very beginning of the level. And every time you collect a bomb, you can load your game at this new save point knowing you don't have to collect that same bomb twice. This should also help address my concern that perhaps levels 9, 10 and 11 are too difficult.
21
« on: November 27, 2021, 12:53:24 pm »
Ah yeah I meant grenade. My bad. The issue is not really the enemies being hard to beat, though, but rather that the level is very large to be done in one sitting.
Yeah, good point. I was hoping to have something like the Legend of Zelda for the NES, where you can save your game but have to start from the beginning cave every time you start the game up. Or Shovel Knight, where your game will save only after you complete a level. I stand by that choice for some of the later levels, but maybe I should make an exception for the first level.
22
« on: November 27, 2021, 12:15:43 pm »
Would it be possible to add the possibility to save anywhere in the first level? The level seems incredibly huge and I get lost easily, running out of bombs and dying eventually before I can finally save, so I had to restart from almost the beginning everytime I wanna test. 
Also how do you attack the alien? He's immune to everything...
Have you tried using Y= and WINDOW to switch between players? The alien can be attacked with Jamie's fire and Collin's ray gun. Also, do you mean that you run out of "grenades?" If you actually run out of "bombs" instead of "grenades," that's a bug I need to fix, since you're not supposed to have access to bombs until the next save point. I'm not sure yet I want to add the ability to allow players to save anywhere during the first level, but if that first level is proving too difficult, maybe I should reconsider it. That is what this "balance testing" is meant for, after all EDIT: I was able to gain some extra space for a few more tiles after optimizing everything, so I'll add a couple of "save points" in the map. At least then you can walk up to those points to save your game.
23
« on: November 26, 2021, 10:45:26 am »
I forgot to write in the manual that you can press MATH to run and x -1 to stop running.
24
« on: November 26, 2021, 04:27:11 am »
For people who can't wait 5 days, i coded a quick fix.
Just run UNLOCK.8xp once, it makes all RAM executable, so the app won't crash when creating a new game anymore.
In case you want the RAM execution permission back to its system default configuration, LOCK.8xp basically cancels what UNLOCK.8xp did.
Happy testing!
Hey, thanks!! Speaking of which, once these bugs are fixed and everything optimized, your old saved games will still work, so it's okay to start testing!
25
« on: November 26, 2021, 02:50:34 am »
Rabbitsign did indeed say the file had a poor signature. You can try this newly signed one. However, I'm not 100% sure it will work, because I "resigned" the app rather than starting from a freshly generated .bin file -- again, the new .bin file will have to wait until my reoptimizing is done.
It appears the resign was properly done.
However, attempting to create a new game causes a RAM clear (TI-84+SE).
Thanks to wabbitemu, it's due to an execution violation on bank 3 (RAM page 0) at address $C0C9.
Not sure if PC is supposed to go there, but if yes, you'll need to expand RAM execution range first.
 *facepalm I totally forgot about that! Yes, there is some RAM code there. I put my uncompressed tile data and map data at $9D95, when instead I should have put my RAM code there. Again, sadly, that's a fix I can't quickly implement, but I'm glad you caught that. A very special thanks for everyone wanted to test this! I'll try as quickly as possible to get this problem fixed in about 5 days!
26
« on: November 25, 2021, 11:17:40 pm »
Rabbitsign did indeed say the file had a poor signature. You can try this newly signed one. However, I'm not 100% sure it will work, because I "resigned" the app rather than starting from a freshly generated .bin file -- again, the new .bin file will have to wait until my reoptimizing is done.
27
« on: November 25, 2021, 02:16:35 pm »
I didn't end up using spasm to sign the app because I ran into an issue where it wouldn't automatically roll data from the end of one page to the beginning of the next page. So I'm using spasm to build the .bin file and wabbitsign to sign it. I might try rabbitsign next, but the problem is, I didn't back up the source code I used to make the early-release. I've been doing some optimizations to allow the finale to be stored on the app instead of in an appvar, so I might not be ready to give "signing" another go until next week 
28
« on: November 25, 2021, 12:29:56 pm »
Could it be that I used WabbitSign? Should I use something else to sign the app?
29
« on: November 23, 2021, 02:21:23 am »
Here it is! An early release build / test build of my new RPG game "Elimination." If you like Final Fantasy, Earthbound and Pokemon, you'll probably like this game. Download the game here: http://ceme.tech/DL2201This is an early release build. That means that this is for testing purposes. If you manage to finish the game, you won't be able to see the final cutscene because it's not ready yet, but your game will be saved, and then you can see the ending simply by loading your saved game once the final cutscene is ready to go. There are two things I'd like to know: 1. Does the game work? (I've only been testing this on an emulator) 2. Is the game too easy or too hard? You can send me an email or make a post here if you find a bug or if you think the game is too easy or too hard. What do I mean by if the game is too easy or too hard?* The first two levels should be easy. Levels 9,10 and 11 should be hard but not frustrating like NES Battletoads or Atari 2600 E.T. * Are there any weapons that are overpowered? * Are there any weapons or projectiles that are too expensive or too cheap? * Do you find that you have to return to the main hub too often to heal yourself? * Is money too easy or too hard to come by? * Is it too easy or too difficult to level up? * Is there a world where one character gets under-used because he / she can't fight most enemies? * Are any of these bosses (besides the Alien CIC) too easy or too hard? Firebird, supercomputer, Zebella, Balkstone, Tank Mark X, Cardon Bol, Red Hawk I'll be able to fix bugs and statistics, such as how much money a robot gives you, how much health you get for leveling up, how much damage a weapon can do, etc. I won't be able to add any more features. For example, I was hoping to add an option so that you could instantly heal all your health at once instead of pressing "heal" over and over, but I won't be able to. I was also hoping to add an option where damaging shields with protons gives you more experience points, but I won't be able to.
30
« on: November 21, 2021, 08:59:59 am »
Second test-run complete! I had to fix a lot of bugs that occurred from moving between levels, so I need to give it one more playthrough, but since this can be done in "invincibility mode," it shouldn't take long.
I also have to finalize the game's PDF manual.
Hopefully an early release build will be ready within three days!
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